In a recent post lemoyne made reference to the addictive aspects of shooting gongs. Now I've never shot gongs, but we've been talking about setting some up on our hunting club range. So, can some of you guys provide info on what you use for the gong, how you set them up, things to do or avoid, etc.?
__________________
My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
I don't use them ,want to though, i think they would be cheaper in the log run.And for those that don't have
spotting scopes it would pay of big time for long range.
We mostly used 1/2" steel plate for a gong. Burned two holes on one edge and hung them from a frame using # 11 wire. Left a coil of wire laying on the ground out there by the gong, so anyone could rehang it if it was shot down. We replaced them quite often, because we shot them with .300 Weatherby and such. Our gong was located 330 yard out, and usually we painted them orange. It is indeed fun to shoot at such things and hear the bullet hit through the ear muffs. It is quite an impact.
We started out with two gongs; one 1' square, and the other 2' square. As time went by we ended up only having a 1' gong. Once we salvaged a chunk of steel 1" thick and around 8" square off the job, and this one lasted for a long long time. It seems to me if one was shooting only muzzle loader at the gong it would last awhile.
It was fun to repaint the gong upon arrival, and be able to see the exact point of impact through a spotting scope. It was also fun to shoot at the gong with .44 hand guns; was good instruction for long range shooting.
I have been thinking about hanging a gong. I was going to get a used disc from a farmer and paint it orange. If I do it I am going to drill three holes evenly spaced about an inch in from the edge and hand it with fairly heavy chain from two of the holes, probably just hang it on T-Posts, then hang a pretty long link of chain from the bottom hole so that the gong won't swing for long after a shot. I think keeping a hand full of the right sized chain repair links handy would let you rehang the gong quickly if you shot one of the chains. I wouldn't shoot it any closer than 100 yds I don't think though because of potential ricochet. What do you guys think how would the concave shape of the disc affect reicochet? Is 100 yds too close?
We/I have several Gongs, I have 2 30" old Forage Harvester fly wheels hanging between trees at 1000 yards for center fire work including 50bmg, at 175 yards we have a 24" steel center rim from a Ford tractor with a plate welded over the center hole. in the woods around my house I have several 3/4 in steel gongs hanging between trees/posts. I like to weld the chains to the corners of the gong to hang. The 1000 yard gongs have 5/8 nylon rope to hang them. I think it lets them ring better.
I also have a couple of old 20 lp gas tanks hanging from trees, the won't take them for recycling till they have a hole in them so why not Hammer them good
__________________
Ken
Central, NY
--------------------------------------------------- ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
All The “Rat Bastards” In DC Know Obama Is Not Eligible
Boolitz = as God laid it into the soil,,grand old Galena,the Silver Stream graciously hand poured into molds for our consumption.
Bullets = Machine made utilizing Full Length Gas Checks as to provide projectiles for the masses.
I have two set up. One I can move and use on the power line up to any distance and oneI shoot across my BILs lake (310yds). I use 1/2"steel plate I picked up at the truck repair shop nearby (they do a lot of welding). I hangboth from rope and let the bottom swing but it is restricted by a bar across the bottom so it doesn't spin around if hit on the edge. This allows it to settle back quickly.
You can really hear it ring!! Especially with MLs.
__________________
Be sure you are right, then go ahead. - Davy Crockett (1786-1836)
We have two sets one is for Pistol and one is for rifle.
they are all made of 1/2 rejected or scrapped med high carbon steel.
The pistol are 6 inch disk hung from 2 chains so that the face is close to 20 degrees down they are set up at 30 yds.
The rifle are disks of the same material hung the same way a 20 inch a 10 inch a 6 inch and a 6 inch cut in half.
Some points: they have at least 18 inches of chain this and the angle helps absorb the impact.
The angle also helps deflect any ricochets into the ground.
All the rifle gongs are set up at 250 yds, some of the cartridge guys like to shoot them to and it helps keep them from getting torn up.
We have been discussing setting up some animal targets with a hole as the vital area and putting a gong in the hole and scoring them hit or miss.
Do you think the guys would like that? Lee
Van, don't know about the rest of the guys you shoot with but if you were just shooting you could use anything. Cause it won't matter you won't hit it anyway....hehehe. Just kidding bud, 1/2" steel is the norm. And if you can weld a length of flat stock to it and a section of 1" black pipe, you can slide a piece of rebar or 1/2" conduit thru it and make a swinger out of it.
It will last longer from taking the smack from those big chunks of lead.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
Van, don't know about the rest of the guys you shoot with but if you were just shooting you could use anything.Cause it won't matter you won't hit it anyway....hehehe.
A pox on you bronko. O ye of little faith!I was kinda` thinking of a 12" disk at 50 yards to build confidence before I move it all the way out there to 75 yards. I understand thatif Ishoot such a targetwiththe X7 and its4X scopeI amallowed to divide thedisk sizeand multiply the range by a factor of 4 when talking about myhits.
I like thatrebar hinge approach.
Hey Lee, that animal target/gong combination sounds like a fun idea. On of the guys in my club had a six-foot standing grizzly bear cut-out from one of those grocery store displays (Frito-Lays I think). It was made of corrugated cardboard and very realistic looking. After we had a little fun passing it in front of some of the guy's trail cameras, we put it on the shooting range and tacked six-inch toy balloons over the heart area toshoot at. It was a hoot when we made the rules that you had to do a quick snap shot off-hand at 30 yards. Just about everybody got killed by the bear.
__________________
My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
The last time I set up the targets I stretched a cable down a hill side put a deer target on pulleys. I set up a board you had to step on to trigger it, if you missed the vital area then you had to walk up the hill and set it up for the next guy. I stayed up on the hill and set it up for the guys that hit the vital area. You would not believe all the complaints about how fast it ran and being off balance when it showed; I ask them if the deer all ways waited till they were ready. Lee
Do You Gong?
